Phoenix man facing prison for selling access to infected computers

A federal judge in Washington, DC Thursday sentenced a Phoenix man to prison, for selling access to computers that were infected with malware. From Phoenix, KJZZ’s Mark Brodie has more.

MARK BRODIE: Federal prosecutors say 30-year old Joshua Schichtel will spend 30 months behind bars. He pleaded guilty last year to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorization by the transmission of programs, codes or commands. Prosecutors say Schichtel sold access to botnets. Those are networks of computers that have been infested with malware, which lets unauthorized users control those computers. They say Schichtel was responsible for the installation of the malware on 7,200 computers for a customer that paid him $1,500 for use of the botnet. In addition to the prison time, Schichtel will also serve three years of supervised release.